C. J. Hopkins

Plays by C. J. Hopkins

Bob and Sam are two regular guys chewing the fat, putting the world to rights over a bottle of Jack Daniels and a game of poker, apparently trapped in an empty bar-room in this latter-day American Waiting for Godot. Conversation is rapid-fire and ranges from God and fishing to gambling and art, building to a deeply-felt exploration of the values of mainstream America. What emerges through their extraordinary dialogue is a portrait of a culture caught in a painful flux; a dichotomy between a nostalgic, reactionary sentiment and a desire to forge ahead with something new.

Horse Country was a fringe hit at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002, winning the Best of the Fringe Firsts prize, before transferring to the Riverside Studios, London

courtesy of author

C. J. Hopkins began writing for the stage in 1987, creating a cut-up stage text entitled Attic Clap Theory K, adapted from T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party. In 1994, he was awarded a Developing Artist Fellowship by the Drama League of New York and, in 1995, a development residency at Mabou Mines/Suite. Hopkins's work includes Texas Radio, The Installation, How to Entertain the Rich, A Place Like This, and Horse Country, which won the Scotsman 'First of the Fringe Firsts' awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2002.